50 THE HOME, FARM AND BUSINESS CYCLOPEDIA. 



There is a pathetic goodness about some great sinners which they never 

 lose. We love the poor fallen one whom we. try to save. Never are the 

 amenities of home more precious, more sacred, more touching, than when 

 they try to help the faltering, stumbling footstep, to hide the disgrace, to 

 shelter the guilty, to ignore, if possible, the failing which easily besets the 

 prodigal son ; to welcome him back when society has discarded him ; to 

 be patient with his pettishness, and to cover his faults with the mantle of 

 forgiveness : all these are too tragic, too noble, too sacred for us to dilate 

 upon. They are the amenities of heaven. 



Society makes no explanations and asks none, else we might ask why 

 some men and women are tolerated, and why others are cast out ? Why 

 some young man who had once forgotten himself after dinner is held up to 

 scorn, and why another is forgiven even through the worst scandal ? Why 

 is injustice ever done ? 



Many a young man, having experienced injustice at the hands of society, 

 goes off and deliberately commits moral suicide. The conduct of society is 

 profoundly illogical, and we can not reform it. 



m 



CONSIDERATION FOR EACH OTHER. 



Too great care can not be taken in the family circle of each other's feel- 

 ings. Never attack your brother's friend. Remember that if we are at all 

 individual we can not like the same people, see the same resemblance, or 

 enjoy always the same book. Temperaments differ. One feels a draught 

 and wishes the window shut while another is stifling with heat. Were we 

 among strangers, we should simply bear with the draught or the heat 

 without speaking. At home it grows into a quarrel. 



" I am so glad Louisa has gone away, for now I can shut the window," 

 said a sister once, who found it so impossible to live with her family that 

 on coming into her property she very wisely took a house by herself. 

 Perhaps they could not live in the same atmosphere. 



Great care is necessary in remarks about looks. Never tell people that 

 they are looking ill. If they are sensitive, as most people are about their 

 health, the information that they look ill will make them worse. The 

 questions and the searching glance of a kind mother will have to be borne, 

 for she is the natural custodian of the health of her family ; but even that 

 annoys most people. A due regard for the feelings of her family will teach 

 her, in nine cases out of ten, to hide the anxiety she may feel. 



